Viking Sun Art Collection

THE RESTAURANT | DECK 2

THE RESTAURANT | DECK 2 INGER JOHANNE GRYTTING 1949 X NORWAY X PENCIL Inger Johanne Grytting is a Norwegian artist from the Lofoten Islands, Norway, who has lived and worked in New York City since 1972. The main feature of Grytting’s later abstract drawings and paintings is the line, involving a technique that has consumed the artist’s form of expression for more than a decade. Grytting begins her drawings and paintings by defining a set of self-imposed limitations, which are impossible to follow precisely. They center upon her execution of a multitude of repeating, parallel lines, organized into tight grids, creating a dialogue with the white surface of the paper. The lines are arranged in small groups forming various columns and rectangular shapes. When producing these lines, Grytting is aware that the movements of her hand are inherently imperfect, impossible to fully control, and subject to the vagaries of her thoughts and emotions. In this way, each drawing is the result of a meditative process and is a portal to the core of her inner landscape, where narrative elements are reduced to abstract signs. When Grytting moved to New York in the 1970s, she became a part of a pulsating art community, receiving lasting influences from abstract expressionism and minimalism. Since then, Grytting has been an important link between the American and Norwegian art scenes. Her loft on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan has for decades been a meeting point for many American and Norwegian artists and writers. #53 | 2003 46

THE RESTAURANT | DECK 2 HANNE MAY SCHEEN 1960 X NORWAY X ETCHING, MONOTYPE Observations of the natural world are the inspiration for Norwegian artist Hanne May Scheen’s work, which she describes as an abstracted version of traditional landscape painting. She features foregrounds and backgrounds represented with lines and streaks, emphasizing movement. She seldom uses specific landscapes in order to lead the audience into the abstract world she has created. Scheen has built a large following from decades of solo exhibitions at major galleries across Norway and as far afield as Australia. 10 KNOLL 5 | 2001 47